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The Jury
BENTI BANACH
As a member of the selection committee of the Dutch Mountain Film Festival in Heerlen Benti Banach unites his passion for film with his love of mountains.
Being in the presence of mountains inspires Benti with both a sense of humility and minuteness of self, together with a feeling of both happiness and serenity that brings great fulfillment. He is fascinated by the unique landsca- pe, people, culture and religion of the Himalayas and has worked in this region as a tour guide, journalist and volunteer teacher.
By profession a journalist in the Netherlands, he always tries to give a face to the stories and peo- ple behind the bare facts, an approach that lends unexpected depth and layers to his work. Banach views mountain films with the same perspective, which is essential for a genre that has developed in leaps and bounds over recent years – and is still developing, in terms of storytelling, technique and approach.
IRENE DIONISIO
Irene Dionisio (Turin, 1986) is a filmmaker, screenwriter and a visual artist. Her productions include vi- deo installations and documentaries which were presented in many international festivals (Turin Film Festival, Visions du Réel, Taiwan Film Festival, etc.) and received various awards such as the Audience Award at the Festival dei Popoli, Florence, the Carid- di Award at the Taormina Film Festival, the Solinas Award for Best Documentary Screenplay, the Scam Award and the Jury Prize at Cine Verité Film Festival in Tehran. Her video installations have been shown in various exhibition spaces including Palazzo Gras- si in Venice, the Berardo Museum in Lisbon and the MAMBo Museum in Bologna. Her first fiction film,“Le ultime cose” was presented at Venice International Film Critics Weekwas a finalist for the David di Do- natello Award, the Italian Golden Globe Award and took a Silver Ribbon Award for best screenplay. In 2020 Irene won the Giuseppe Bertolucci Award and in 2021 she was awarded an American Dream Fel- lowship for Artist. For three years she was the artistic director of the historic LGBTQI – Lovers festival, ma- naged by the National Museum of Cinema in Turin
PAOLO CORSINI
Paolo Corsini is deputy director at the Italian TV network Rai Due with special responsibility for news programmes. He has always been a mountain enthusiast although his field of work focusses chiefly on politics and the economy. He graduated with a degree in Medieval History and is a longstanding parliamentary reporter. He has worked with the Rai network since ’96 where he acted for many ye- ars as editor of Gr1 Economia. Paolo was editor-in-chief of the Gr Parlamento programme and subsequently deputy director of Giornali Radio programmes (Gr1, Gr2 e Gr3) and for Radio1. Over the years he has broadcast numerous radio shows such as “Que- stione di soldi”,“Baobab” and “Questione di Borsa”. In 2004 he produced and directed Radio1’s “K2 cinquant’anni dopo” pwhere he acted as special correspondent in covering the Italian expedition to the K2 summit in commemoration of the 50th an- niversary of the first ascent. He has received wide- spread recognition for his achievements including the“Testimonianza”Award in 2021,the“Cilento per il giornalismo” award in 2016 and the “Sulmona” gold medal award for journalism in 2011. Paolo is an of- ficer of the Sardinian Grenadier Reserve regiment and he has been honoured with the title of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
